How to Create Great Training Videos in 2022

Video as a format for gaining new information is unprecedentedly popular today. TikTok, Instagram stories and reels, YouTube videos, Netflix series… the list of videos a person watches in a day goes on and on. And that’s fascinating for corporate training because using this format is likely to be a success.

There are many practical materials on how to create employee training videos, yet few focus on essential tips that make explainer videos genuinely captivating. This article is all about them. Check them out to create great training videos in 2022:

Connect with your trainees

Have you ever noticed how some speakers seem cool and trustworthy from the first seconds of a video, and some fail to accomplish that even by the end? The first kind of speaker manages to connect with the audience on an emotional level.

If you want to win trainees over right away, you first need to do some homework and get to know your audience. Identify their age, educational level, profession, etc. Focus on how they speak. Do you train millennials? Then don’t use boomer words. Do you train older people? Forget about phrases like “Netflix and chill” and “the struggle is real.”

It’s also essential to pay attention to your outfit. You don’t explain how to operate equipment to factory workers while wearing a suit. The audience needs to see that you’re one of them. Think of yourself as an undercover spy in this case. Put on a uniform, use their words, and speak their body language — that’s how you connect with your trainees.

Keep your videos short

People aren’t good at maintaining their attention on one thing for a long time. Imagine you’re in a bar with a new friend and they start telling you their life story. How long will you be able to stay focused? And now, let’s say your friend doesn’t try to kill your evening with their ultimate biography but breaks it into short stories and tells them one by one every time you meet — great nights, great (and long!) friendship.

It’s the same with training videos. People get distracted after 6 minutes, so keep your videos shorter than this. If you have a complex topic that can’t be covered in such a brief time span, just break it into a series of videos that cover different aspects of the subject. That way, your trainees will always pay full attention, which is a must-have for effective learning.

Use cinema techniques

The art of cinematography is all about how you show things. Focusing the audience’s attention on this or that detail is the language of films. Training videos don’t have to be blockbuster movies, but as they have the same format, why not use some cinematic tricks to shoot incredible videos? The technique you should consider here is the “Rule of Thirds.”

Pick out a camera and look at your shot. Mentally divide it into nine equal parts like this:

Do you notice how your eyes automatically fix on the points where the lines intersect? Even if you shoot a video without considering this feature, viewers will pay a lot of attention to these places, anyway. So, your choice is either to present something that trainees need to focus on (a speaker, for instance) or to let them dive into thoughts on a cactus, wallpaper, or anything else that occupies the magical place in the shot. A speaker would probably work best for corporate training.

Prepare the background

We’ve already touched on the ‘cactus’ issue; let’s elaborate on that. The video background is essential in several ways. If it’s messy, your video will look unprofessional. If your background and speech don’t align, your video will feel strange. So, to avoid such complications, consider using a clean background: a backdrop paper, a wall, or just a solid color bed sheet.

It might also be good to have the background reinforce your speech. For example, if you’re shooting an explainer video for a car dealer sales team, record it right in their car center. Let the audience connect new skills and knowledge with the place where they’ll implement them.

Add annotations

Texts in training videos help you engage your audience and make your materials more comprehensive. You can add various kinds of annotations:

Introduce the title, sections of the main body, and the conclusion. You can also outline steps if your video is a guide or a plan.

Some people prefer watching videos without sound; some might not know the language that well. Some of your employees might have a hearing impairment. Subtitles will be a valuable asset for any of these cases.

When you’re introducing new ideas or new pieces of information, trainees might remember them better if they can see them in the text on the screen. Try listing rules, techniques, features, and other essential points of your talk to focus your audience’s attention on the primary information.

Add other training activities

People acquire new information better if you deliver it through a variety of activities. Such an approach lets you keep trainees more engaged and thereby concentrated. Besides, it allows them to revise training materials and look at new knowledge from different angles.

For example, you could combine your training videos with interactive online courses. Or you could show trainees a video and then send them an online quiz to check how well they remember the new topic.

While you can make training videos in PowerPoint, you’ll need an authoring tool like iSpring Suite for such extra activities. With it, you’ll be able to turn your PPT presentations into online courses, create engaging courses from scratch, build interactive online quizzes, and create role-plays to develop employees’ communication skills. Besides, iSpring Suite has a built-in video studio. You can record and edit screencasts, video lectures, picture-in-picture videos, add annotations, convert text to speech, and synchronize your video with PowerPoint effects and animations.

Summing Up

Creating great training videos can be much easier if you know what to focus on. In this article, you’ve learned six valuable tips that will hopefully help you record truly fascinating videos that your trainees will love. Consider them when creating learning content to make sure your corporate training is as effective as it can be.

Helen Colman

Helen Colman is an editor and content strategist at iSpring eLearning software. She enjoys combining in-depth research with expert knowledge of the eLearning industry.